Holdfast Training Services Trial Blog

Apologies for another post in such a short period from my last one; I will try and keep it short.  In the last month the tunnel vent project seems to have reached the ‘money grabbing’ stage that Gregg and Steve described in their phase 1 lectures … the budget has run out, instructions have dried up and the client (Crossrail) is looking over our shoulders.

In contrast to many projects for commercial clients the Tunnel Vent NEC 3 ‘cost plus’ agreement is geared to incentivise quality above programme, cost or anything else.  Therefore, bizarrely, there are no programme-linked milestone payments or costs for over-runs; all that the contract allows for is the reduction of the contractor’s fee.  This is illustrated in the graph below (the risk element covers insurance costs):

ATCjv cost profile showing tapering reduction in fee past end date

The main way the client is looking to claw back funds is to find disallowed costs… basically finding evidence that we are incompetent or cutting corners. As a result at the point of the project when the contractor (ATCjv) should be concentrating most on the installation phase we are instead trying our hardest to cover our tracks with EWNs and hide mistakes behind other contractors delays.

I’m not sure how many sites would finish on time if their incentive scheme was set up in this way?  I look forward to see if the Elizabeth Line opens on time in summer 2018….